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Version 1.0 Copyright ©1995 by Don Yacktman, All Rights Reserved. MiscMergeTemplate Inherits From: Object Declared In: misckit/MiscMergeTemplate.h Class Description This class conatins the template that is used by a merge engine. It performs two functions: (1) parse a string or text file into the commands required by a merge ending and (2) act as a container for the commands once they have been parsed, providing them to a merge engine as needed. Typically, MiscMergeTemplate objects are used in a very simple way: they are instantiated, given the ASCII text or string to parse, and then passed to MiscMergeEngine instances as needed. That's it! It should be noted that template text which is simply copied from the template into the merged output (ie. an text outside of a merge command) is actually turned into a special ªcopyº command by the parsing algorithm. This allows the merge engine to deal exclusively with MiscMergeCommand subclasses to perform a merge. This implementation detail should not affect anything that would normally be done with this object, but it is important to understand this fact if attempting to understand the data structure created by the parsing routines. Instance Variables List *commands; commands Storage for parsed MiscMergeCommands. Method Types Handling delimiters + startFieldDelimiter + endFieldDelimiter + setFieldDelimitersStart:end: Finding MiscMergeCommands + getClassForCommand: Initializing a MiscTemplate - init - initWithString: - initFromFile: - initFromFileNamed: Loading the template - parseFromString: - parseFromFile: - parseFromFileNamed: Accessing parsed template - commands - commandAt: Class Methods endFieldDelimiter + (char)endFieldDelimiter Returns the character used to end a merge command. getClassForCommand: + getClassForCommand:(MiscString *)aCommand Given the command string aCommand, this method determines which MiscMergeCommand subclass implements the merge command. It returns the class object needed to create instances of the MiscMergeCommand subclass. This method works by asking the runtime if it can find Objective-C classes with specific names. The name that is looked up is build from the first word found in aCommand. The first word is turnd to all lower case, with the first letter upper case, and then sandwiched between ªMergeº and ªCommandº. For example, the merge command ª«If xxx = y»º has the word ªIfº as the first word. Thus, the class ªMergeIfCommandº will be searched for. If the desired class cannot be found, then it is assumed that the merge command is giving the name of a field wich should be inserted into the output document. To avoid name space conflicts, all internal merge commands actually use a slightly different name. Thus, there really is no ªMergeIfCommandª to be found. This method, when it doesn't find the ªMergeIfCommandº class, will search for another class, with a private name. That class will be found. (If it weren't found, then the default ªfieldº command class would be returned.) This allows a programmer to override any built in command. To override the ªifº command, simply create a ªMergeIfCommandª class and it will be found before the built in class. If a programmer wishes to make a particular command, such as ªomitº, inoperative, this technique may be used to override with a MiscMergeCommand subclass that does nothing.' Note that if the command string aCommand contains merge commands inside itself, then a special ªdelayed commandº class will be returned. That class will, during a merge, create an engine, perform a merge on its text, and then parse itself into the correct type of command. This allows merges to contain commands that change depending upon the data records. Note: This method should really be in the MiscMergeCommand class and not here. Sorry! I may move it when I have the time. -don setFieldDelimitersStart:end: + setFieldDelimitersStart:(char)aChar1 end:(char)aChar2 Sets the characters used to start and end a merge command. Returns self. It is highly recommended that aChar1 and aChar2 be different characters. startFieldDelimiter + (char)startFieldDelimiter Returns the character used to start a merge command. Instance Methods commandAt: - commandAt:(unsigned)index Returns the ith merge command to be executed by the merge engine. commands - commands Returns a List object containing, in order, all the merge commands to be executed by the merge engine. init - init Initializes the MiscMergeTemplate instance and returns self. This is the designated initializer. initFromFile: - initFromFile:(MiscFile *)aFile Initializes the MiscMergeTemplate instance, parses the template from the file pointed to by aFile, and returns self. This method is provided for convenience. initFromFileNamed: - initFromFileNamed:(MiscString *)aFileName Initializes the MiscMergeTemplate instance, parses the template from the file named aFileName, and returns self. This method is provided for convenience. initWithString: - initWithString:(MiscString *)aString Initializes the MiscMergeTemplate instance, parses the template from aString, and returns self. This method is provided for convenience. parseFromFile: - parseFromFile:(MiscFile *)aFile Parses the MiscMergeTemplate from the file pointed to by aFileName. Returns self. parseFromFileNamed: - parseFromFileNamed:(MiscString *)aFileName Parses the MiscMergeTemplate from the file named aFileName. Returns self. parseFromString: - parseFromString:(MiscString *)aString Parses the MiscMergeTemplate from aString. Returns self.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.